DAILY BEAST: …In Saudi, women do not get to compete in elite sport—let alone exercise, play, or even participate in physical education. They can’t even watch a sports match. “No women allowed” is what life is like for girls and women in Saudi Arabia who aspire to run, throw a ball, swim, or ride a bike. In six months, the London Summer Olympics will open with fireworks and fanfare. Teams from every country will parade proudly at the Opening Ceremony. One team, Saudi Arabia, plans to send only men.
The International Olympic Committee is the keeper of the Olympic flame, and has immense power over national Olympic committees. In the same way we demand that athletes play by the rules, Saudi Arabia should not be allowed to violate the Olympic Charter’s ban on “discrimination of any kind.”
Saudi has never fielded a woman on its national Olympic team, and effectively imposes a ban on girls and women playing sports in the kingdom. Boys in state schools get physical education. Girls don’t—by state policy. The government has shuttered gyms for women. Women are forced to play in underground leagues, while the 153 government-supported sports clubs provide facilities only for men. As an Olympian, I take my duty to uphold the values of the Olympic Games seriously. And as a woman athlete, I have a clear duty to promote the rights of women athletes around the world. The Olympic ideals of human dignity and gender equity are my ideals, too, and it is time for the Olympic movement to find its voice and demand access for Saudi Arabia’s women to the 2012 Olympics… (more)
